One Ambassador's Journey to Mount Rainier

Laura Bogar, 17, is spending her summer spreading her passion for Mount Rainier and hands-on service to the land as a part of the Student Conservation Association’s Mount Rainier Ambassador program. A senior at Seattle’s Garfield High School, she is currently serving as a volunteer on a 15-day trail crew based in the Ohanapecosh area of the park along with a team of other Seattle high school students. In her leadership role as an ambassador, Bogar is helping her crew leaders supervise the technical aspects of the trailwork during the day and, back at camp, she records the experiences and inspirations of her 8 other crew mates. Upon returning to Seattle, Bogar and two other ambassadors, Jaya Ghosh and Julia Sievert, will create a multi-media presentation to share with community groups in Seattle. Their work will showcase the damage at Rainier and the restoration efforts of local Seattle youth.

Bogar began her work with SCA three years ago as a member of the Conservation Leadership Corps (CLC), an SCA program for urban high school students. She and about 40 other Seattle teenagers get together evenings and weekends during the school year to provide service in local parks, learn about regional ecology, and have fun exploring the various outdoor recreation opportunities in Western Washington. The program encourages dedicated students like Bogar to build on their years of service by taking on more responsibility and leadership with each year. This year Bogar helped with grant writing, event organizing, and project leadership.

Laura has spent previous summers with SCA providing volunteer service at Mount Rainier and Glacier National Parks. When offered the opportunity to travel again to an out-of-state park this summer, Laura insisted that it was important for her to serve locally. Laura is inspired by the connections we have to our home bioregions and the good work that her fellow youth can accomplish given the right outlets. She looks forward to sharing her experiences and those of other SCA youth with the public.

For Laura’s blog and more information about the Conservation Leadership Corps and SCA opportunities in the Seattle area, visit www.thesca.org/seattle_newsevents/ or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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